Past, Present, to FutureThe late Mr.Isamu Noguchi's Unrealized Design

The late Mr.Isamu Noguchi, a world-renowned sculptor, longed for the construction of Memorial to the Dead of Hiroshima. After his death, several architects followed his will and acted for its construction, but it has never been realized until today.

On April 5, 2009, President Barack Obama made a speech in Prague, in which he clearly stated his conviction to seek "a world without nuclear weapons.""... as a nuclear power, as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it."I regarded this statement as a dawning of a new age. At the same time, even though I am just a creator, I could not help asking myself,"Then what is a moral responsibility of Japan as the only victim of the nuclear bombing? What we, the Japanese, must do in the world?"Searching for an answer, I listened to the voice of Mr.Isamu Noguchi from the past.

There are things that we can do now, and only now. I wasted no time and set out to act. The cooperation of Architect 5 Partnership, the architects who worked with him in the Moerenuma Park project and led to its completion after his death, Mr.Terasawa, and Ms.Kuratani was indispensable.

We started out by trying to interpret Mr.Isamu Noguchi's message in the situation where Japan stands today. His original Memorial was for the agony and the grief of victims of Hiroshima. We sought for the possibility of new Memorial, which fully expresses his original message, but in addition, sends out a more active and clearer message, never to let another Hiroshima and Nagasaki happen again.

On this respect, there is a difference in character and scale, between Mr.Isamu Noguchi's original and this new memorial, though their final objective is the same.And this difference leads us to find its new location in Tokyo, and its larger scale leads to wider meanings. Its environment includes a green park, an information media center, which plays a central role in the movement for the abolition of nuclear weapons, along with museums and other facilities in relation to the concept. Direct information exchange on global scale through these facilities, will lead people to deepen their understanding on the thoughts for world peace and abolition of nuclear weapons. We believe this movement will expand beyond sea, to other countries that share our views, eventually to form a global link.

This will for abolition of nuclear weapons is a future vision for our planet, which the U.S. and Japan must lead the world, hand in hand, regardless of our grounds in tragic history. We must deliver Mr.Isamu Noguchi's message from past to present, and to future. The construction of this Memorial is not the final goal, we must go beyond, and keep sending out our messages through this Memorial , "No More Hiroshima and Nagasaki".